This invention is concerned with providing a message center which may indicate the presence or absence of various personnel as well as holding messages for the individuals. Generally, businesses having a number of employees must provide some means at a central location to take messages or otherwise make known which employees are present and which are absent. For example, a switchboard operator might include a list of all such employees near the switchboard. Each day some notation would be made to indicate when an employee is present. This would get cumbersome for employees who are both present and absent for different periods of the same day. It is also customary for the switchboard operator to take messages such as telephone messages or hold personal items for temporarily absent employees.